WorldWatch Institute – Danielle Nierenberg’s urban agriculture stories from Africa

Danielle visits an urban farming project in Kibera and talks about the importance of agriculture in improving nutrition and incomes in urban settings.

Urban Agriculture in Africa

Danielle Nierenberg is a Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and co-Project Director of State of World 2011: Nourishing the Planet. Her knowledge of sustainable agriculture issues, in particular factory farming and its global spread, has been cited widely in the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, and other media.

The following stories, videos and links are from Nourishing the Planet’s Weekly E-Newsletter, and include highlights from Danielle’s time in Kenya, where she met with farmers and visited projects on the ground to learn about and analyze environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating poverty and hunger.

Vertical Farms: Finding Creative Ways to Grow Food in Kibera

Visiting Kibera — one of the largest slums in sub-Saharan Africa, home to almost a million people — I met women who are raising vegetables on “vertical farms” by poking holes in sacks, filling them with dirt, and planting seeds. This method of urban gardening provides additional food to eat and sell in places where there otherwise might be food shortages, and helps provide important vitamins and nutrients to diets that might otherwise be lacking in dark leafy greens. 2009-11-09

See the complete story here at Nourishing the Planet blog.

Farming on the Urban Fringe

I was able to talk with farmers who work on a small plot of land right outside of Kibera, owned by the Kenyan Social Security Administration. With the help of Urban Harvest, these farmers are growing an amazing amount of food in a very small space, and improving their harvest and income on land that they don’t even technically own.  2009-11-16 

See the complete story here at Nourishing the Planet blog.

Making More with Less: Growing Organic Food in a Small Space

I met an urban farmer named Mr. Francis Wachira Meru just outside of Nairobi, who raises over 500 rabbits, 30 chickens, one goat, and a variety of traditional African vegetables and crops on a space smaller than most backyards in the suburban United States. 2009-11-14

See the complete story here at Nourishing the Planet blog.
 

Innovation of the Week: Policy Formulation and Action Planning for Urban Farming

This week’s innovation involves two seemingly unrelated subjects: cities and farming.  But as we’ve already seen in just the couple weeks I spent in Kenya, many farmers benefit from growing their own food to eat and sell in urban settings. Right now there are over 800 million people worldwide practicing urban farming. Mobilizing the people who benefit most from this practice to encourage the inclusion of urban farming in city plans and policies will help to integrate this innovation into everyday city life, improving nutrition, increasing urban food security, and raising incomes. 2009-10-29

See the complete story here at Nourishing the Planet blog.